Growing Market: Demand Up for Local Producers
By Christi Nies, quotes Mary Hendrickson

Columbia Daily Tribune

August 10, 2004

Online at: http://www.showmenews.com/2004/Aug/20040810Busi004.asp

The demand for locally grown food in Columbia is spreading like strawberry vines in a summer garden, producers say.

Two bustling farmers markets in Columbia peddle everything from corn and tomatoes to lamb, goat cheese and honey. Local food outlets The Root Cellar and Clovers Natural Market have seen steady sales increases. And even mainstream grocery stores such as Hy-Vee are taking on more and more local meat and produce.

"We have two" farmers markets "instead of one now, and they’re both getting stronger," said Walker Claridge, owner of The Root Cellar. "That’s bringing more people out to buy local food."

The Columbia Farmers Market, near the Activity and Recreation Center at Ash Street and Clinkscales Road, started 24 years ago. Several farmers split off last year to form the Boone County Farmers Market, located at Business Loop 70 and Creasy Springs Road.

Between 2,400 and 3,400 customers have visited the Columbia market every Saturday this summer - about 1,000 more per day than last summer. Guy Clark, president of the market’s board of directors, said business is booming for the market’s 75 vendors.

"The market’s growing by leaps and bounds," said Clark, who has been with the market for 11 years and sells produce from his own Fertile Crescent Farms.

The Root Cellar opened its Providence Road store in 2001 as a way to help local farmers get their produce to Columbia customers. Claridge said he’s seen demand for local products blossom in the five years he’s been selling produce from his farm.

"You look around now, and Hy-Vee, Gerbes, Schnucks, all of these corporate-style chain grocery stores are carrying eggs and honey and breads and coffee, all locally produced," he said. "That’s a tribute to consumer demand."

At Clovers Natural Food Market at 2100 Chapel Plaza Court, Diane Hazelwood has seen demand rise just in the year she’s been produce manager. "They love to support the local farmers, plus the quality is really good," Hazelwood said. "It seems to be catching on."

Along with more customers, there are also more growers. Claridge said local farmers who sell at The Root Cellar haven’t complained about the increase in competition - everyone is focused on raising demand even further, he said.

Clark agrees that growers seem to be multiplying every year. The competition hasn’t hurt most growers because demand has been rising too, he said, but for some common products the market has gotten tight.

"Now, everybody in the world has tomatoes, and the market’s getting flooded," he said.

For Vera Gelder of Walk-About Acres, peddling honey at the Columbia Farmers Market has boosted sales, widened her product’s exposure and introduced her to a tight network of local food producers. She and her husband, Art, sell honey harvested from hives on their northeast Columbia farm, as well as beeswax candles, eggs, produce and bedding plants.

"We sell all of our honey and then some," she said. Walk-About now sells nearly 2,000 pounds of honey every year.

Despite other honey vendors selling at the same market, Gelder doesn’t feel crowded by the competition. Each vendor has regulars, she said, and new customers wander into the market every week.

What started as an FFA project nine years ago has turned profitable for Glasgow sisters Deanna and Jana Thies. The pair since high school has sold a variety of seasonal produce through their company, The Veggie Patch, first at the Columbia market and now at both. "There’s a lot of people coming out that have never tried a farmers market before," Deanna Thies said.

The increased business has been good for the sisters, who over the years have gone from farming 1½ acres to about 7 acres.

From the sunny, bustling farmers markets, with white tents flapping in the breeze, customers can drive south on Broadway to Hy-Vee and buy many of the same local products. Store Director Tom Klucking said he’s happy to sell locally produced foods because the quality is good and customers like them.

"When we get the opportunity to buy something that’s local or Missouri-grown, we buy it until our supply runs out," he said. "It supports the local economy, and people are looking for local products."

Hy-Vee now sells a seasonal range of produce as well as pork from Patchwork Family Farms, chicken from Country Fresh in Macon and beef from Columbia-based Sho-Me Farms. The in-store restaurant exclusively uses Patchwork bacon.

With only a few farms selling locally produced meat, Patchwork, Sho-Me and other meat producers have little competition aside from the meat from corporate food conglomerates. Vegetable growers, however, face a more crowded market.

Patchwork hopes a $650,000, four-year grant from the Kellogg Foundation will help the cooperative expand its infrastructure and start selling a wider range of local products, including vegetables, to restaurants and grocers. The grant was awarded July 1 to the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, which sponsors the Patchwork pork co-op, and the Food Circles Networking Project, based at University Extension.

"The ultimate goal is to keep the food dollar in the community," said Mary Hendrickson, assistant professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia and director of the Food Circles project.

The grant money will be used to raise consumer awareness about locally produced foods and help Patchwork improve its warehouse and processing facilities on Sexton Road.

"We want more farmers selling local products and improving their bottom line," Hendrickson said. The grant will also fund policy work aimed at encouraging pro-family farm legislation.

On the wholesale side, said Bryce Oates of Patchwork, grocers and restaurants would buy more local meat and produce if the supply system were more streamlined. "I don’t think they want to work with 100 farmers," he said. "They want a funnel."

By increasing and streamlining Patchwork’s capacity, Oates hopes to give growers another outlet for their produce and increase demand among wholesale customers.

"There’s a lot more growers now, but what it’s lacking is the cooperative effort," he said, adding that demand is hardly being met. "We’re taking that marketing capacity to the next level."